The invention relates to cabinet door and drawer handles and locks. More specifically, the invention relates to handles and locks for use with particle board cabinet doors and drawers.
A wide variety of cabinet door and drawer locks are currently available in this well developed art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,619 to Martin entitled xe2x80x9cSpeed Release Mechanism for Cylinder and Plug Assembly for Use with Cabinet Locksxe2x80x9d issued Jun. 16, 1992, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention illustrates one example of an advanced cabinet door and drawer lock. Locks of this type typically have a substantially rectangular bolt housing in which resides a retractable deadbolt. A cylinder and plug assembly conventionally resides in a cylindrical cylinder and plug assembly housing which itself extends forwardly from the bolt housing. The bolt housing is typically mounted to the back side of a cabinet door or drawer by screws or the like, while the cylinder and plug assembly housing protrudes through a circular aperture in the cabinet door or drawer. The bolt is retracted or extended by inserting a key into the cylinder and plug assembly and rotating the key. A strike plate may be provided on the opposing cabinet door or adjacent drawer jamb in the case of a cabinet drawer.
Deadlocking latch-locks suitable for use in cabinet door and drawer applications are also known, and a lock of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,652 entitled xe2x80x9cPin Tumbler Cabinet Door and Drawer Deadlocking Latch-lockxe2x80x9d issued on Aug. 19, 1997, also assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In that patented design, the external configuration of the lock is substantially identical to that shown with respect to the deadbolt style cabinet door and drawer lock. However, the bolt of the deadlocking latch-lock is split into a main bolt having a curved surface and an adjacent deadlocking bolt also having a similarly curved profile. This structure permits the lock to be xe2x80x9clatchedxe2x80x9d into place merely by closing the cabinet door or drawer. If the deadlocking bolt portion remains depressed by the adjacent jamb portion of the structure to be locked, then the main bolt remains locked in an extended position until retracted by operation of a key. Thus, in this type of lock a key is not required to close the door or drawer having the deadlocking latch-lock.
Considering the highly developed state of the prior art, additional advances in cabinet door and drawer lock technology have typically been driven by changes in structure external to the lock itself. For example, solid wood has become increasingly scarce as a raw material for cabinetry. Due to the increasing cost of such virgin raw materials, combination fiber board in the form of wood fibers embedded in a plastic resin have replaced sheets or panels of solid wood. For aesthetic purposes, this type of xe2x80x9cpress boardxe2x80x9d is typically faced on one or both sides with a plastic laminate or veneer. Unfortunately, composite structures of this type have far lower tensile strength than the hard woods such as oak and the semi-hard woods such as spruce, fir and fruit woods which were previously employed in cabinet structures. Thus, a need exists for a cabinet door and drawer lock which can accommodate the lower tensile strength and screw retention capabilities of composite xe2x80x9cpress boardxe2x80x9d cabinet doors and drawers.
In addition, the recent adoption of the Americans With Disabilities Act (hereinafter xe2x80x9cADAxe2x80x9d) has also necessitated changes with respect to handle and door pull designs for cabinet doors and drawers. When applied to composite xe2x80x9cpress boardxe2x80x9d cabinet doors and drawers, such handles suffer from the same screw retention and force concentration problems associated with prior art cabinet door and drawer locks mounted on press board surfaces. Thus, a need exists for a cabinet door and drawer handle and pull which is adaptable to composite wood structures.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cabinet door and drawer lock which can accommodate the lower tensile strength and screw retention capabilities of composite xe2x80x9cpress boardxe2x80x9d cabinet doors and drawers.
It is a further object of the invention to achieve the above object with a cabinet door and drawer handle and pull which is adaptable to composite wood structures.
The invention achieves these objects, and other objects and advantages which will become apparent from the description which follows, by providing an integrated cabinet door and drawer handle and lock for receipt in a cutaway portion of a cabinet door or drawer manufactured from a composite wood fiber/resin material. In the preferred embodiment, the integrated cabinet door and drawer handle and lock has a front piece consisting of a main body portion and a substantially planar face plate portion defining a cylinder housing aperture for receiving the cylinder housing portion of a cabinet door and drawer lock, and a handle aperture for receiving a user""s fingers when used as a cabinet door or drawer pull. The face plate portion has at least three laterally extending flanges and a rearwardly-directed, transversely extending lip portion positioned on an edge of the face plate portion and spaced apart from the main body portion. The preferred embodiment also includes a substantially planar backing plate which when used in conjunction with the front piece clamps the lock onto a cutout portion of a composite cabinet door or drawer. The backing plate preferably has a transversely extending lip portion corresponding to the lip portion on the front piece, so that the respective lip portions engage one another in a telescoping, sliding relationship. In this way, different thicknesses of composite cabinet door and drawer materials can be accommodated while the flanges on the front piece and the backing plate essentially clamp the portions of the cabinet door or drawer adjacent to the main body portion so as to spread out forces transferred from the integrated handle and lock to the entire adjacent surface of the cabinet door or drawer. This structure avoids the concentration of forces on screw holes in the composite material typically relied on for mounting prior art locks.
In the preferred embodiment, the handle aperture in the face plate is narrower than the corresponding handle aperture in the main body portion so as to define a hidden pull surface for the user""s fingers behind the face plate. In an alternate embodiment of the invention, the main body and face plate portions of the front piece further define a second cylinder housing aperture for receipt of a cylinder housing portion of a second cabinet door and drawer lock which can be of the latch-lock type.
The integrated cabinet door and drawer handle and lock optionally includes a wire pull handle connected to the front piece. The wire pull handle has a substantially straight portion suspended in a spaced apart relationship from the handle aperture on the front piece. The wire pull handle can be laterally positioned either adjacent to the handle aperture or directly above the handle aperture.
In yet another alternate embodiment of the invention, the structure of the integrated cabinet door and drawer handle and lock can be provided without any aperture for cabinet door or drawer locks, and without the optional wire pull handle to present a xe2x80x9cdummyxe2x80x9d handle used in door and drawer applications.